Study and deployment of methacrylate-based polymer resins for immobilized lipase catalyzed triglyceride hydrolysis

Abstract

The performance of microbial lipase from the organism Candida rugosa immobilized onto three methacrylate-based polymer resins was studied. Two of the resins are surface functionalized with epoxy & butyl (ECR8285) and octadecyl (ECR8806M) groups and were compared with an un-functionalized resin (ECR1030M). Sizing of protein using dynamic light scattering technique suggested immobilization was surface dominant. Lipase was immobilized from 0.1 M, pH 7.4 phosphate buffer, at 22 °C for a contact time of 20 h. The resins were characterized using FT-IR spectrometry, N2 adsorption, contact angle measurements and scanning electron microscopy. Continuously stirred-tank batch reactors operated at 100 RPM were used to compare the performance of the immobilized lipase using triglyceride hydrolysis. Octadecyl functionalized methacrylate resins showed superior performance and showed a maximum of 62% yield of FFA on a 100-h time course study. Comparing octadecyl functionalized resins with un-functionalized resins, a four-fold increase in activity retention was observed. Epoxy & butyl functionalized resins showed lower performance compared to octadecyl functionalized resins but higher than un-functionalized resins. Performance in the presence of chemical modifying agents, glutaraldehyde, (3-aminopropyl) triethoxysilane and itaconic acid, applied during immobilization protocol was measured. Superior performance was observed in the case of itaconic acid for functionalized resins.